Re: [Harp-L] Making the Move to Chromatic

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com


________________________________
From: Bob Cohen <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Making the Move to Chromatic

***Disclaimer: I'm relatively new to the language of theory.  Therefore I apologize in advance if I got something wrong. To those who know more, please correct any mistakes I may have made.***

On Sep 20, 2011, at 1:54 PM, Philharpn@xxxxxxx wrote:

===Phil Lloyd writes:

> Some people make a big deal about HOW HARD it is to play chromatic after playing diatonic.  If you can play simple folk songs on holes 4-7 on a diatonic, you should have no problem switching to a chromatic.  Because that's all a chromatic is: that section of holes 4-7 repeated over and over

===Bob Cohen replies:

Well I'm not sure I agree.  The chromatic has all the notes. As a result, playing different keys requires transposition; which means knowing different patterns other than the C scale in holes 4 -7.  Whereas,if you can play one diatonic you can play all the keys using the same patterns and techniques by switching instruments.

===Winslow responds further:

Playing in all keys is a deeper subject that gets very involved, to be sure - and even with using different keys of chromatic, all sorts of difficulties crop up just playing in one key - missing notes, shifting layouts in the different registers. But to someone making the initial jump from diatonic o chromatic, it's nice to start with the easy stuff, and the common pattern of the middle four holes on both instruments is good for just that reason.

An awful lot of the older chromatic players from the harmonica band generation will just play everything in C, and then hold in the slide and play the same pattern in C# just for variety. This happens in group play-along sessions as well as individual renditions.

And plenty of blues musicians play chromatic only in third position (or hold in the slide and do the same thing in 10th position), essentially trating it like a diatonic and using different keys of chromatic to play in different keys.

Digging more deeply into either diatonic or chromatic gets very involved.

==Bob Cohen continues:

Likewise, having all the notes readily available in one place offers players opportunities for approaching the music differently. You can move from chord to chord chromatically or modally, for example, without having to overblow.

What makes the chromatic difficult for many diatonic players, IMO, is the necessity to make deliberate note choices and to be clear about the underlying theory (whether intuited or formally taught). 

==Winslow observes:

I think deliberate note choices and thinking about theory make diatonic just as difficult, once you start to play in a fully conscious way. On chromatic or diatonic, players can blindly play melody, or recycle riffs and chordal rhythms without regard to the underlying harmony.

But it's true that many players come to the chromatic with higher expectations of musicianship, even though musicianship will benefit anyone who plays any instrument.

No argument that learning to play in several keys on a single instrument is more work, though.

<snip>

===Bob concludes:

But I will say that digging deeply into the chromatic, and studying it the way other instruments are approached, has opened my ears tremendously.  It's well worth the torture of trying to teach a middle aged dog like me new tricks.

===Winslow:

Absolutely. Music goes a lot of beautiful places that get far beyond what three positions of blues tends to explore, and it's nice to develop the ability to access those places and bask in that beauty. You can always go home, and bring a few souvenirs . . . .

Winslow